A couple from South Carolina who moved to Uganda, an East African Country, in 2017 to do humanitarian work is facing multiple charges, including aggravated child trafficking and torture of their 10-year-old foster son. If convicted of the charges, the couple faces the death penalty.
The foster parents, Nicholas Spencer and Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer, both 32, have been in custody since December 9 after their neighbors in the capital of Uganda, Kampala, reported the alleged torture to authorities.
The couple moved to Uganda for humanitarian work in 2017, and in 2018 they fostered three children from the Welcome Ministry in Jinja City. According to a statement released by Ugandan Police on December 13, the couple allegedly kept the 10-year-old boy without clothes and barefoot through the day. “Sometimes, they would force him to squat in an awkward position,” the statement indicated. Also, they allege that they made the boy sleep on a bare wooden platform without any mattress or bedding. Some of these incidents were captured on video by the neighbors.
One of the caregivers at the home claimed that one son was tortured since the foster parents claimed he was mentally unstable, stubborn, and aggressive.
“I wanted to quit the job; however, I figured if I left without doing something, the torture would have continued,” the caregiver reportedly said.
At a recent hearing, the Spencers were denied bail, and the court heard that the boy, who is HIV positive, had been tortured since 2020. Prosecutor Joan Keko claimed that the couple was a flight risk due to their lack of local ties or family, and due to the severity of the charges they face, she claimed their likelihood of absconding bail is high.
The Spencers were initially charged with aggravated torture, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a charge to which they pleaded not guilty.
This week, they received an additional charge of aggravated child trafficking, a charge that carries the death penalty if convicted, the state prosecutor confirmed.
According to the couple’s lawyer, Agence France-Presse, the new aggravated child trafficking charges “don’t make sense” and is “a fishing expedition,” since the last time they were in court, the state confirmed that their inquiries were complete.
The new charges were read on Tuesday as the couple appeared in the magistrate’s court. However, they weren’t allowed to take a plea since the matter was a serious charge that only a High Court could hear. The date for the new hearing is yet to be set, and the couple will remain in custody at Luzira Prison, a maximum-security prison located on the outskirts of Kampala.
Previously, Mathias Spencer ran a GoFundMe for emergency surgery for “joint spinal issues” that had already been treated with seven spinal surgeries.
In her appeal, she detailed how they had moved to Uganda to carry out humanitarian work focusing on women’s empowerment and education but had to go to Spartanburg, South Carolina, for surgery.
“Since we no longer live in the US, we aren’t covered by the health insurance in US, meaning, every expense for this surgery must be paid from the pocket,” she wrote.
The lawyer’s application to get them released for treatment was denied, with the prosecutors claiming there were no ailments that couldn’t be treated within the prison system in Uganda.
